BeachFront U.S.A.

Why should I care if this tradition lives on or is killed?

Skinny dipping is for some people only a game to be played occasionally or perhaps only to joke about. For other people, it is an important part of life. That visit to the hot springs deep in the desert or that weekend afternoon at the nude beach is a vital respite from the stresses and troubles of their work life. For still other people, nude bathing, whether at a remote river site far from the eyes of the causal hiker or in the privacy of a backyard hot tub, is an activity that has to be wiped out through illegality, constant vigilance, arrest and prosecution.

This diversity of attitude is an unavoidable part of life and is something we will always be living with. Yet many within the last mentioned group do not intend to honor this diversity. Rather they have been working hard to wipe the expression of that diversity from the face of the earth. They press city councils to pass laws against nudity. They slip riders into Congressional bills to outlaw nudity at traditional clothing-optional recreation areas in national parks and other public lands. They will walk miles to get offended by the nudity at a out-of-the-way beach so they can file a complaint with the authorities. They claim only the worst of evils can result from people taking off their clothes to enjoy that all-embracing sensual liquid of life: water.

Why should you care? Because your favorite recreation or enjoyment may be on their list. Prohibition was a grand experiment at eliminating a practice that a limited number of active and motivated people felt was an all-encompassing evil. It succeeded in only giving organized crime a firm basis for entrenchment. Do you think that prohibitionists would regard nude beaches as an "ok" thing to do? Those opposed to nude beaches will not stop there.

BeachFront USA is A Web Site and an Organization devoted to keeping our beaches, rivers, springs, lakes and trails nude, that is, open to use by people who want to enjoy a textile-free life or moment in accordance with the long and widespread American tradition of skinny dipping. For further information, send an email message to info@bfusa.org.